Trophy makes fans Giants: Visitors flying high as hundreds line up to see team's World Series trophy in Chico

CHICO — The San Francisco Giants' World Series drought was much shorter this time around. That didn't make Chico fans any less appreciative of the club's second championship trophy.

Hundreds of Chicoans draped in orange and black filled Community Park off 20th Street on Wednesday to see the coveted prize, won by the Giants this past fall with a four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers — the second World Series title by the team in three years.

With both the 2010 and 2012 trophies on display in the park's field house, the club's trophy tour of California stopped in Chico in cooperation with the Chico Area Recreation and Park District and benefiting the Junior Giants program. The trophy heads to Red Bluff today.

From the first person in the twisting line, Janet Clark, to the last, chilly but excited Giants fans were once again treated to a photo opportunity with the team's prized hardware.

Fans started lining up early Wednesday morning. The doors to the field house weren't scheduled to open till 3 p.m., but opened a little early — to the delight of everybody.

"In 2010, it was the first time and it was just so long in coming that it would have been hard to top," said Clark, a Paradise resident donning a hat loaded with about 55 Giants pins and a jacket with about 60 more that she said increases the garment's weight to 7 pounds.

"But in 2012, knowing the feeling from the last Series, the taste was still so strong in my mouth as a fan. It was almost where if it was to be taken away it'd have been even more bitter than not getting one at all." That issue, obviously, was avoided, as the Giants once again lived out their "torture" mantra to make the Fall Classic, winning six straight elimination games against Cincinnati and St. Louis en route to facing and beating heavily favored Detroit.

"The whole playoffs, that's what made me believe they could do it. All those elimination games," said Clark, who grew up watching the Giants in Los Gatos and who recalled secretly listening to games in bed on a transistor radio as a child. "Being a Giants fan my whole life, I know it's never easy, and that's what makes being a true fan so much more enjoyable."

Fans were encouraged to bring $1 donations, with all proceeds going directly to the Junior Giants program, said CARD General Manager Steve Visconti, himself a longtime Giants fan. He greeted the crowd moments before the doors to the field house were opened up.

"Two in three years, huh? Pretty unbelievable," he said, to massive applause. "I'm so happy to see the Giants be so successful. It's an organization that is something to look up to."

He also lauded the Junior Giants program, pointing out its donations of equipment and opportunities for youth to play baseball in their own communities.

"What they do for kids is incredible. They are a great example of what we try to do here ourselves," Visconti said. "They instill things in kids that will help them, give them goals and activities in life outside of the day-to-day grind."

Most fans, of course, were there to celebrate the senior club's recent accomplishments. One was Mark Geyer, who was also at the 2010 ceremony at City Plaza. His dedication to the team veered into superstition and even affected which watering holes he could visit.

"Certain bars, I wouldn't go to because they lost games there," Geyer said, noting two bars that were off-limits in his mind during the playoffs. "We had to not risk anything and watch the World Series at home."

Whether it was Geyer's rituals or, as Clark said, the Giants' handling of drug-busted Melky Cabrera, San Francisco pulled it off, making many Chico supporters champion fans for the next year.

"It's so hard to stay on top once you get there," Clark said. "To get to enjoy this time as a Giants fan is hard to beat."